Nothing is Wasted
A Sermon for October 29, 2023
The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan
Text: Deuteronomy 34: 1-12
There are few moments in the Bible that are more poignant than the image of Moses standing on the mountaintop, looking out over the valley and all the way to the sea. He is being shown an oasis, a refuge, a place that was flowing with milk and honey, and a place that he will never set foot in himself, although it is now close enough to see with his own eyes. At this point Moses is 120 years old and has endured every kind of danger and discomfort. It is his tireless effort and God’s enduring faithfulness that have led his people there. They have trekked through the wilderness for years. And no matter how his people complained and grumbled against him, Moses did not give up on his promises to them, nor did he let God abandon them. And yet Moses died before he saw his life’s work to completion.
It is probably a little silly for any of us to try to compare our own life stories to that of the greatest prophet of Israel, the man who was “unequaled for all the signs and wonders” and known throughout history for “the mighty deeds and the terrifying displays of power” that he performed. And yet, this last moment of his life feels like one that is so human, so relatable. How many of us worry that we will leave this life with unfinished business, with work that means so much to us and yet does not result in the outcome we want, at least in our lifetimes?
For most of my young adult life, I thought that my calling was to be an English professor. I spent something like eight years working on a Ph.D. that I never finished. Those of you who are academics know what it means when I say that I am “ABD,” or “All But Dissertation.” It means I completed all the required course work and testing for the degree, but I didn’t complete the dissertation itself and therefore didn’t the degree. You can imagine, I’m sure, that when you’ve devoted that much time and energy to something, with all the attendant sacrifices that you and your family make, well, it is not easy to walk away without the degree, the letters after your name, the shiny reward. Working on a doctorate isn’t exactly 40 years in the wilderness, but sometimes it comes close!
For a long time after I left my Ph.D. program, I carried with me a sense of shame and failure. I felt like I had disappointed a lot of people, myself included. Over time, though, something that a spiritual director told me began to feel more and more true. His words can be summed up in a single sentence: “In God’s economy, nothing is wasted.”
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. For me, this was about more than trying to find a use for obscure skills I’d learned during my doctoral work, like mastering Middle English paleography or becoming something of an expert on an anonymous 14th century poem called “St. Erkenwald.” Ultimately, I didn’t enter the promised land of the Ivory Tower and a tenure-track job, but I did learn a lot, and mostly had a wonderful time doing it. I encountered fantastic teachers, I made great friends, I spent endless hours in libraries and museums in New York, I got to try my hand at teaching, writing, and giving papers at conferences. And somehow, through it all, I was slowly gaining clarity that my true vocation lay elsewhere, in the church.
Just in case anyone is confused about why I have the “Rev. Dr.” title in front of my name, I should clarify that I’m just stubborn and ridiculously optimistic enough that when I had a chance to obtain a different doctorate, this time a Doctor of Ministry degree, I went straight back into the fray, and did in fact complete that degree. But all of that is a story for another time!
Given how complex and often treacherous the world is, we likely all have unfinished business. There is no need for this to be a source of shame or a sense of failure. The truth is, the most important work we can undertake as human beings is rarely finished in a lifetime. We marvel at the great cathedrals of Europe, or the pyramids of Egypt, but need to be reminded of the people who gave their life’s work to those projects without ever seeing them completed. Many of us are engaged by the most urgent and important issues of our time—the fight for racial justice, the climate emergency, the ongoing quest for peace, nuclear disarmament, and liberation for all people. After a week like this past week, we might wonder what the point is. War, gun violence, devastating storms—is our work, all our effort, making any difference at all?
My own personal Moses, the woman whose story inspires me more than just about anyone I can think of, is the Kenyan biologist, activist, and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. You’ve likely heard me talk about her before. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which has both empowered women and reforested large parts of her native land. She was far ahead of her time in understanding the interconnected nature of so many of the challenges facing us and took a holistic approach to solving them. Her work started with a simple idea, that women should come together to plant trees, and became a movement that has outlived her by more than a decade. When she died in 2011, the problems she was battling against were far from over. And yet, was any of her work wasted effort? Having walked through a forest in Nairobi that she helped save, I can confidently say that her efforts to change lives and landscapes continue. As she herself was known to say, “We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”[i]
One more story. The preaching professor Joy J. Moore recently responded to the passage in Deuteronomy about Moses on the mountaintop with the Promised Land still out of reach. Speaking as an African American whose ancestors were enslaved, she said, “I was in Africa [and] I stood at the Atlantic, at the Point of No Return and said, ‘I’m standing here. I have returned. And I am free.’”[ii] Of course she acknowledges that the work of liberation is ongoing, and yet her experience serves as a powerful testimony to the long, slow arc of justice in this world. It is so important that we remember how far we have come, in order not to lose hope for the work that is still in front of us to do. Future generations need us to keep going, no matter what.
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. And in God’s economy, the greatest currency of all is love. When Jesus is asked to name the greatest commandment, he doesn’t hesitate. His answer has nothing to do with great accomplishments, with achievement, with striving. His answer is love. Love God first and foremost. And love your neighbor as yourself. When our work is done from love, and with love, it cannot be wasted, it will not fail, whatever the outcome in the near future. Every small gesture of kindness and act of love ripples out beyond itself, having effects on people that reach far beyond our ability to see or know. So let’s keep loving, and keep working, and have faith that the outcome is always in the hands of a loving, life-giving, and liberating God. Amen.
[i] http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai
[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/927-22nd-sunday-after-pentecost-ord-30a-oct-29-2023
